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In the wild, cats would eat several small low-calorie meals throughout the day, sometimes as many as 20 meals. But they are solitary hunters and therefore each meal is very small and usually consists of small prey such as mice.
But how many times should we feed our pet cats? Is it down to preference, life-style or something else?
Free feeding or Ad-libitum feeding
Because cats like to eat little and often food is often left down all day so the cat can graze. However, this can be a problem if you feed wet food, especially in the summer where it dries up and attracts insects. The main concern with this type of feeding is that the cat can easily eat more calories than it requires causing weight gain.
Feeding once-daily or twice-daily meals
Feeding highly digestible, high calorie meals (which most complete cat foods are) in one or two offerings per day has been shown to result in obesity and boredom[i] which in turn can reduce the cat’s wellbeing. Boredom is a result of not having the opportunity to use their physical abilities and mental skills to hunt and catch prey. To increase mental well-being and get your cat moving around we recommend using puzzle feeders to make mealtimes more interesting.
Unfortunately for owners, researchers don’t all agree. A more recent study[ii] on feeding frequency comparing cats eating four meals per day to one meal per day showed that the cats fed just one large meal were more satiated (they had greater levels of appetite-regulating hormones in their blood after eating). And in some cases the cats eating just once a day consumed less calories than those fed 4 small meals per day, however no change in body weight between the two groups of cats was recorded.
Kittens
Young animals or those with specific health conditions will often have to eat differently to healthy adult cats. Kittens have very small stomachs, but are growing quickly and need energy dense food. Therefore you do need to feed them little and often to be able to get enough nutrition into them. Kittens aged 8 weeks to 6 months old need at least four meals a day, after which you can reduce to three meals a day until they are fully grown. Once they’ve reached adulthood you can choose to feed once or twice a day, or feed little and often depending on what suits your cat best.
In summary
There isn’t enough information yet to give a definitive answer on how many times a day you should feed your cat, but the experts at International Cat Care currently recommend adult cats eat five small meals per day out of a puzzle feeder (which can be made easily). If feeding multiple meals is not always possible, remember that the most important factors when feeding your cats are:
1. not to overfeed them – use kitchen scales to accurately measure food.
2. provide plenty of puzzle feeding toys, interaction and stimulation to keep them active and prevent boredom.
3. feed cats separately to reduce stress between household cats, as in the wild they would hunt and eat alone.
[i] Sadek, T., Hamper, B., Horwitz, D., Rodan, I., Rowe, E. & Sundahl, E. 2018, "Feline feeding programs: Addressing behavioural needs to improve feline health and wellbeing", Journal of feline medicine and surgery, vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 1049-1055.
[ii] Camara, A., Verbrugghe, A., Cargo-Froom, C., Hogan, K., DeVries, T.J., Sanchez, A., Robinson, L.E. & Shoveller, A.K. 2020, "The daytime feeding frequency affects appetite-regulating hormones, amino acids, physical activity, and respiratory quotient, but not energy expenditure, in adult cats fed regimens for 21 days", PloS one, vol. 15, no. 9, pp. e0238522-e0238522.
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